To help identify obstacles to investment, the Committee of the Regions has invited the representatives of EU cities and regions to take part in a survey on "Obstacles to investment at local and regional level", the results of which will be presented to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council.
On Thursday 16 June, the MOT attended the third meeting of the Committee of the Regions' interregional group on cross-border cooperation (and EGTCs) chaired by Pavel Branda.
The CECICN - Conference of European Cross-border and Interregional City Networks - held meetings of its political board and executive board on 15 June in Brussels in the presence of four of its member networks: the MOT, the CESCI (Central European Service for Cross-border Initiatives), the UBC (Union of Baltic Cities) and the FAIC (Forum of Adriatic and Ionian Cities).
On 26 May 2016, Anne Sander, MEP and Vice-President of the MOT, chaired the fourth meeting of the working group on cross-border cooperation that she has coordinated at the European Parliament since June 2015. Around 40 experts, MPs, civil servants, staff and representatives of interest groups came together to discuss the solutions to unemployment in border regions.
Study carried out by the Central European Service for Cross-Border Initiatives (CESCI), 2016
The Institut National des Études Territoriales (INET) in Strasbourg has put online a platform designed to centralise a large amount of disparate information about French territorial civil servants' possibilities for mobility in Europe and internationally.
The legislation to strengthen the fight against organised crime, terrorism and the financing adopted on 26 May 2016 provides for the reintroduction in France of required authorisations for any minor leaving the country.
Lancé à l’automne 2014 par le président de la Commission européenne, le plan "Juncker" vise à relancer les investissements en particulier dans les infrastructures, les industries de demain et les compétences. Composé de deux volets – 75 milliards d’euros pour les PME et 240 milliards d’euros pour les infrastructures – il a été mis en œuvre rapidement sur le terrain.
Intended to form an integrated urban entity within the framework of the "Two Banks" initiative structured around a tramline, which is scheduled to start running in 2017, the cities of Strasbourg and Kehl constitute an interesting barometer for the consequences of the reintroduction of controls along the French-German border.
“Europe in my Region” is a European communication campaign organised by Commission's Directorate-General for Regional Policy around four different initiatives: the EU Open Project Days, a treasure hunt, a photo competition, a blogging campaign.
At the instigation of INSEE and its French and Belgian partners, a seminar entitled "Cross-border observation: what type of organisation for what type of actions?" was held in Tournai on 28 April 2016.
"Relations between nature and national borders have traditionally been regarded as antagonistic: while nature does not recognise borders, international public law is structured by them. Borders thus constitute a threat for nature in a context of accelerated erosion of biological diversity worldwide."
On 12 May, a conference was held to launch a new European project entitled "PASSAGE"*, initiated by the Pas-de-Calais Department and Kent County Council within the framework of the European Straits Initiative. Funded by the Interreg Europe programme, it involves eleven partners on five maritime borders** and is aimed at encouraging cross-border low-carbon initiatives.
The first report of the European consultation on the obstacles and potential solutions to cross-border cooperation yields some very interesting analyses. A few elements: concerning the profile of the respondents, 84% of them live in a border region and 48% are private individuals.
With 25 years of supporting Interreg programmes for cross-border cooperation to its credit, celebrated in 2015, but aware of the progress that still needs to be made, the Commission initiated a process of identifying the obstacles that remain at the EU's internal land borders.
A training course entitled "The cross-border director-general" was held on 26-27 April in Strasbourg by the MOT and the Centre National de la Fonction Publique Territoriale (CNFPT).
On 18 April 2016, the Conférence TransJurassienne (CTJ) presented its new strategy for cross-border cooperation in the territory of the French-Swiss Jura Arc.
Evaluating quality of life and the desire for "living together" in Greater Geneva is the objective of the study that has just been published by the Geneva HES-SO (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland).
The second European Congress of Local Governments was held on 5-6 April 2016 in Krakow in Poland. The event brought together more than 1500 participants, among which there were many locally elected representatives especially from central and Eastern Europe.
The French-German association has launched two new websites aimed at providing consumers with better information.
The EGTC Platform of the Committee of the Regions held its annual meeting on 20 April in Brussels, on the topic of the impact of the Schengen Area crisis on cross-border cooperation. During the event, the 2016 EGTC Award was given to the French-Spanish cross-border hospital in Cerdanya, the first of its kind in Europe.
The second edition of “Startup Show 42”, a cross-border digital innovation fair, was held on 6 April in Metz on the fringes of the Franco-German Council of Ministers. Over forty startups from the Lorraine Corridor (Epinal, Nancy, Metz, Thionville) and the QuattroPole city network (Luxembourg, Metz, Saarbrücken, Trier) were there to present their know-how and latest innovations.
DG REGIO has just published a 36-page report on the public consultation “Overcoming obstacles in border regions” carried out in autumn 2015.
This study, which has just been published on the UMS RIATE website, looks at the analysis of border regions on internal borders of the European Union with a methodological approach: How do we define border areas? How do we measure the multi-criterial territorial discontinuities? How do we qualify their evolution in time? How do we evaluate accessibility between border regions?
Since 2008, the IFSI (Nursing training institute) of the Centre Hospitalier de Sarreguemines in France and Völklingen Hospital in Germany have built a partnership in the field of nursing education, consisting of the development of interculturality and promotion of bilingualism in initial and ongoing training.
